Last Action Hero (1993) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error With the help of a magic ticket, a young film fan is transported into the fictional world of his favorite action film character. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 40 titles created 19 Jul 2013 a list of 32 titles created 23 May 2014 a list of 35 titles created 15 Nov 2015 a list of 33 titles created 16 Nov 2015 a list of 39 titles created 2 months ago Title: Last Action Hero (1993) 6.2/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 1 win & 16 nominations.

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Director: Walter Hill A wrongly convicted man must try to survive a public execution gauntlet staged as a game show. Director: Paul Michael Glaser A barbarian warrior sets off to avenge his parents and his tribe whom were slain by an evil sorcerer and his henchmen when he was a boy. Director: John Milius At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him. Director: Peter Hyams Conan leads a ragtag group of adventurers on a quest for a princess. Director: Richard Fleischer When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or does he? Director: Paul Verhoeven Edit Storyline Young Danny Madigan is a big fan of Jack Slater, a larger-than-life action hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When his best friend, Nick the projectionist, gives him a magic ticket to the new Jack Slater film, Danny is transported into Slater's world, where the good guys always win.

One of Slater's enemies, Benedict the hitman, gets hold of the ticket and ends up in Danny's world, where he realises that if he can kill Schwarzenegger, Slater will be no more. Slater and Danny must travel back and stop him. Written by Alexander Lum <aj_lum@postoffice.utas.edu.au> He's mean . . . And he'll blast through your screen! [DVD cover] See more » Genres: Rated PG-13 for strong action sequences | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 18 June 1993 (USA) See more » Also Known As: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| SDDS (8 channels) (35 mm prints) Color: Did You Know? Trivia When Jack and Danny are in the video store we see the boxes for Die Hard (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and Medicine Man (1992), which were all directed by John McTiernan . See more » Goofs When in Benedicts house, as The Red-eye is lingering, a dark glass window reveals the camera man.

See more » Quotes The only opening credits in this film are the ones for "Jack Slater IV". See more » Connections Arnie sends himself up brilliantly 28 July 2003 | by Big_AL-96 (cambridge) – See all my reviews This would have been the movie of the summer had Jurassic Park not been released at the same time. Arnie sends himself up brilliantly and the it never takes itself seriously. My god the people who slate this movie are sad as it seem that they search for art when it's not even been thought of by the writers. Smile and give your faces a rest. Great action scenes which are obviously fake. Charles Dance is also superb. 102 of 118 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes See the Cast of 'Last Action Hero' Then and Now See the Cast of 'Last Action Hero' Then and Now November 29, 2013 @ 1:30 PM Columbia Released in 1993, 'Last Action Hero' was an action-packed, meta-curiosity: a young movie fan is transported into a parallel dimension, where he must work alongside the star of a series of action films to stop the villain of those films when he escapes into the real world. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a fictional version of himself, the star of the "Jack Slater" series of movies within the movie, which is filled with all sorts of satirical winks and nods to the world of cinema. While the film performed poorly at the box office, it's become something of a cult favorite over time. 20 years later, we take a look back at this truly unique release and see what Schwarzenegger and friends are up to now.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Slater/Himself Columbia/Getty Images Then: Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger played a fictional version of himself, who plays a character named Jack Slater -- a guy who comes to life through a bit of movie magic and teams up with a kid to help stop an evil movie villain. Now: After acting as Governor of California for several years and taking a break from acting, Schwarzengger has finally returned to the big screen -- this year he appeared in 'The Last Stand' and 'Escape Plan,' and can be seen next in 'Sabotage.' Austin O'Brien, Danny Madigan Columbia/Austin O'Brien, Facebook Then: Austin O'Brien played Danny Madigan, a young film fan who especially loves the Jack Slater series of movies and is delighted when he finds himself transported into Slater's world. Now: O'Brien went on to star in 'My Girl 2' and 'The Baby-Sitters Club,' as well as the TV series 'Promised Land.' He hasn't acted as much in recent years and currently lives in Los Angeles, where he runs his own photography company.

Charles Dance, Benedict Columbia/Getty Images Then: Charles Dance played Benedict, the villain of the Jack Slater films who crosses over into the real world. Dance had previously appeared in the films 'The Golden Child' and 'Alien 3.' Now: You know him best as another villainous character -- Tywin Lannister on HBO's 'Game of Thrones.' Tom Noonan, The Ripper/Himself Columbia/Getty Images Then: Tom Noonan played The Ripper, an axe-wielding character from one of the Jack Slater films who killed Slater's son. Noonan also plays a fictional version of himself in the film. Now: Noonan appeared in the first two seasons of the AMC series 'Hell on Wheels,' and recently appeared on the new NBC series 'The Blacklist.' Bridgette Wilson, Whitney Slater/Meredith Caprice Columbia/Getty Images Then: Former model and Miss Teen USA Bridgette Wilson played Whitney Slater, Jack Slater's daughter, and Meredith Caprice, the actess who plays Whitney in the Slater films. 'Last Action Hero' was her first film role.

Now: Wilson went on to star in 'Mortal Kombat,' 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' and 'House on Haunted Hill,' but she hasn't appeared in any films since 2009. She's married to tennis star Pete Sampras, with whom she has two children. F. Murray Abraham, John Practice Columbia/Getty Images Then: F. Murray Abraham played John Practice, a friend of Slater's who ends up betraying him. Abraham had previously won an Academy Award for his role in 'Amadeus.' Now: Abraham recently had a small role in 'Inside Llewyn Davis' and stars in the upcoming Wes Anderson film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel.' He is currently appearing on the Showtime series 'Homeland.' Ian McKellen, Death Columbia/Getty Images Then: Ian McKellen made a cameo appearance as Death a character from Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal,' who comes to life during a screening of the film.

Now: McKellen reprises his role as Gandalf in 'The Hobbit' trilogy ('The Desolation of Smaug' hits theaters this December), and as Magneto in the upcoming 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.' Amazon.com: Last Action Hero: Danny DeVito, Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney: Amazon Digital Services LLC By menkey on November 28, 2014 Format: Blu-ray Verified Purchase This is a review of the 2014 Blu-ray release. I never understood why this movie didn't do better. Perhaps because it didn't take itself seriously - it is, after all, an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies - so maybe we feel like we shouldn't take it seriously either. Arnold by this time had well established himself as an action hero, indeed THE action hero to many. But he had also starred in several successful comedies, such as Twins and Kindergarten Cop. And while there is plenty of action in this movie, it is more a comedy than an action movie.

It is surprisingly (and refreshingly) self-aware in its analysis of the fictional reflection of our real world that exists only in the movies - sort of a modern-day Alice Through the Looking Glass. Whether mocking that there are no ordinary-looking women in the movies, only gorgeous models; or the impossibility that all phone numbers begin with "555", this movie asks us to examine the holes in the fictional reality we are fed in the movie theater, rather than overlook them. It is not often that we get a refreshingly honest script as this. Unfortunately, this Blu-ray presentation leaves something to be desired. The transfer is a bit soft, with weak blacks, and even some fuzzy blurring to the edge of the image in at least one scene (the last projection booth scene). There are ZERO extras, (not even a trailer), and the menu consists of one choice - "Play Movie". No soundtrack or subtitle options. Obviously Columbia has not shown the love to this movie. So, much as I regret it, this Blu-ray only gets 3 stars, due to the quality of the transfer. However, don't let that dissuade you. This really is a gem of a movie.

Why Last Action Hero failed—and why it deserves to be rediscovered · For Our Consideration · The A.V. Club Share Tweet Arnold Schwarzenegger has built his career on negating suspension of disbelief. He plays characters with comically Anglo names like Ben Richards and Howard Langston, despite looking and sounding exactly like an Austrian ex-bodybuilder. He’s good at squinting, smirking, and standing up while keeping his back straight, but not at convincing the viewer that he’s anyone other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. His screen appeal lies in his un-believability. He’s incapable of disappearing into a role (though he comes close in The Terminator). Instead of becoming the character, the character becomes him. That’s the central conceit of his comedies; the humor depends on the viewer recognizing Schwarzenegger and thinking that it’s funny to see him do something un-Schwarzeneggerian. This is also the reason why most of his comedies are pretty bad.

Yet, despite his non-existent range, Schwarzenegger has continually taken on projects that either cast him as a character with multiple identities (Raw Deal, Total Recall, True Lies, Escape Plan) or require him to play multiple characters (The 6th Day, the Terminator franchise). This results in a Hollywood hall of mirrors: Schwarzeneggers interacting with other Schwarzeneggers; Schwarzenegger pretending to be Schwarzenegger; Schwarzenegger discovering that he’s not the Schwarzenegger he believed himself to be, but a different, identical Schwarzenegger. No movie takes the multiple-Schwarzenegger trope further than Last Action Hero, an elastic meta-action-comedy that was considered a resounding commercial and critical failure in 1993. The victim of its own marketing campaign, the movie made $137 million at the box office (equivalent to about $222 million in today’s dollars), but still managed to lose money, because so much had been spent on advertising.

Heavy cross-promotion didn’t exactly endear it to the press, nor did the then-prevailing impression that Last Action Hero was an extension of the Schwarzenegger brand, a Planet Hollywood theme restaurant in feature form. But blaming Last Action Hero’s comparative failure on advertising isn’t accurate; after all, Jurassic Park was just as aggressively promoted. (Of course, many of those involved with the movie would eventually come to blame Jurassic Park—which opened the week before Last Action Hero and became a runaway hit—for their movie’s “failure.”) Rather, the reason why Last Action Hero didn’t become a massive blockbuster rests in the film itself. It’s a mutant that can’t be categorized, both a straightforward action movie and a Joe Dante-style gag-a-minute fantasy. It doesn’t make much sense. It’s the only truly funny comedy of Schwarzenegger’s career, and it’s overtly about Schwarzenegger, and yet none of its best jokes are related to Schwarzenegger’s screen persona. At times, it’s brilliant and demented.

When Last Action Hero opened, one of the most common complaints made by critics was that the film—about a boy who magically enters a Schwarzenegger movie and then brings its protagonist back with him into “reality”—didn’t properly distinguish between the real world and the world of the movie-within-the-movie, and never defined the parameters of either. For instance, after Danny (Austin O’Brien) gets sucked into the fictional Schwarzenegger vehicle Jack Slater IV, he discovers that characters from other movies, like Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s T-1000 (Robert Patrick), also inhabit this universe. But if T-1000 is a real person in the movie-within-the-movie, then why does Terminator 2 also exist in the same world (albeit as a Sylvester Stallone vehicle)? If Schwarzenegger’s Jack Slater loses his invulnerability upon entering Danny’s “real” world, then why do other movie characters—like Death (Ian McKellen) from The Seventh Seal—retain their powers after getting freed from their movies? And why does Danny’s world seem so fake, as choked with in-jokes and movie references as Jack Slater IV?

Last Action Hero began as a straightforward parody of action movie clichés. College buddies Zak Penn and Adam Leff wrote the original script, but once Schwarzenegger became attached, it was handed over to David Arnott and Shane Black. (Penn, who is outspoken in his dislike of the finished film, later became a successful screenwriter in his own right; he would revisit the meta-movie territory of Last Action Hero in Incident At Loch Ness, a mockumentary starring Werner Herzog as himself.) With the involvement of Schwarzenegger, then the world’s biggest movie star, and Black, action movies’ most famous screenwriter, it seemed natural that the John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator), the greatest action director of the era, helm the project. Like his contemporaries Tony Scott and Michael Mann, McTiernan represented a new breed of genre stylist. Half a generation earlier, style-conscious directors like John Carpenter and Brian De Palma had burst on the scene; their work was formally exaggerated, but rooted in classicism, with style functioning as a way to distort the viewer’s perspective. Carpenter’s shock reveals and De Palma’s split-screens were audience-control effects.

The camera served to create and manage a relationship between the audience and the fictional action onscreen. Scott, Mann, and McTiernan, however, were more formalist; reared on European art cinema, they’d found their way into commercials and TV and then into mainstream genre filmmaking. For better or worse, they had developed visual sensibilities before developing narrative ones. They fetishized formal qualities—lens flares, smoky textures, shallow depth-of-field—the way Carpenter had fetishized people clumped together by danger or De Palma had fetishized anxiety. Visual motifs grew into themes, instead of the other way around. Here’s McTiernan speaking to an interviewer in 1999: “To decide what the next note is in a piece of music, you don’t think about the plot, or what it means, you think about: what does it sound like? Is it in the right rhythm, the right key? …In color and lighting also, there are visual melodies.” Though McTiernan had begun in theater (he’d studied stage directing at Julliard), his approach was more textural than dramatic.

The camera-viewer relationship was different, too; the image didn’t act as an intermediary between the action and the audience. Compositions were off-kilter; abstract visual qualities were emphasized. Perspective didn’t matter. Visual impact and rhythm did. After taking over the script from Penn and Leff, Black and Arnott piled Last Action Hero with references. Jack Slater’s chief (Frank McRae) is named after Fred Dekker, who directed the Black-penned Monster Squad. Tom Noonan, another Monster Squad alumnus, appears as himself and as The Ripper, the antagonist of Jack Slater III. Jack Slater IV is credited to Franco Columbu, Schwarzenegger’s best friend from his bodybuilding days. The movie-within-a-movie’s feuding mobsters are named Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Torelli. There are deliberate continuity errors throughout the film, and two different parodies of the iconic overhead fall from McTiernan’s own Die Hard. In the scene from Jack Slater III that opens the movie, Tina Turner plays the mayor of Los Angeles—a parody of stunt Hollywood casting that is itself a piece of stunt Hollywood casting.

(Pointing out clichés while indulging in them is Black’s specialty.) The riffs—many of them obscure—go on and on. The obvious answer as to why Last Action Hero doesn’t tonally distinguish between “reality” and Jack Slater IV is that both worlds are meant to register as fictional. Danny’s world is one where magic exists, where New York grindhouses advertise classic B oddities like Screaming Mimi and Chinatown At Midnight on their marquees, and where Arnold Schwarzenegger has a popular franchise where he plays an L.A. cop named Jack Slater. Like Schwarzenegger fighting himself (the best iteration of which happens during the movie premiere climax of Last Action Hero), it isn’t about a confrontation between the real and the imaginary. There’s no strictly defined perspective; neither world is believable, and thus neither is supposed to control the audience’s point of view. Instead—and this is why I think Last Action Hero has aged so well—what the viewer is presented with are different kinds of ridiculous fiction meshing together. It allows the movie to be completely elastic in terms of style and realism. The result is funny in the same way that Chuck Jones cartoons (referenced in the film, of course) are funny.

Because everything in the Last Action Hero is malleable, the humor no longer rests in the violation of rules (which don’t exist) or screen personas, but in the imaginative co-mingling of intentional crassness and non-logic. Danny gets transported into Jack Slater IV in the middle of a car chase. Slater shoots a bad guy, who gets thrown into an ice cream truck, which then promptly explodes. Cue another bad guy keeling over, with an ice cream cone lodged in the back of his head. “I iced that guy,” says Slater, before adding: “To cone a phrase.” I laugh every goddamn time, but not because the scene successfully satirizes a trope that I, the viewer, am familiar with. I laugh because of a complex interaction of intentionally unreal and parody elements, of things I recognize and things that ignore both common sense and physics. The scene activates that part of my brain that wants to figure out order and purpose, that wants to manage reality, and briefly shorts it out, resulting in a big, unsuppressed guffaw. Explaining what Last Action Hero is like, and how it works, is easier than explaining what it’s about.

In 1993, it was common for critics to observe that the movie was pointless. The only lesson Danny learns from his adventure into the movie-verse is that magic is real, which is, frankly, a terrible lesson. Slater, having discovered that he’s a fictional character, resolves to no longer follow Hollywood hero-cop rules and become an ordinary police officer like he always wanted, which is good for him, but doesn’t really apply to the real world. Clearly, if there’s something at the core of the movie, it isn’t being expressed through the plot (which is self-consciously generic) or the characterizations. And since pure escapist fluff doesn’t exist, that something has to be contained in the movie’s comic sensibility, in the perspective-less elasticity of the style. The top three highest-grossing films of 1993 were, in order, Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Fugitive. Like most popular fiction, these films break certain rules in order to maintain others.

In Jurassic Park, a set of rules is outlined (barriers protect visitors from the dinosaurs, can’t reproduce, etc.) and then deliberately broken so that one rule (“life finds a way”) can be followed through the end. (Careful viewers will notice that the movie’s second act is outlined in the helicopter scene, when Alan Grant fastens together two female seatbelt ends.) Mrs. Doubtfire revolves around a social taboo (cross-dressing) being violated in order to fulfill a parental duty; in The Fugitive, a rule (imprisonment) gets broken so that another one (justice) can be followed. I’m not denigrating any of these films, except maybe Mrs. Doubtfire. They were produced for a culture that functions according to legal and social rules. And, as such, this culture—our culture—finds rule-breaking entertaining and rule following emotionally satisfying. Which, of course, is why Last Action Hero could’ve never become the massive success its producers hoped it would be. What makes the movie special also doomed it: Though it satirizes narrative rules, it never completely adheres to one. Its reality is wonky.

One of my favorite sequences in the film starts with Danny sitting in a classroom in his world. The teacher puts on Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. As Danny grows bored, the Olivier movie dissolves into an imaginary adaptation starring Schwarzenegger, full of references to his meta-fictional Jack Slater character. This parody (which is, I should say, pretty damn funny) dissolves into Chuck Jones’ Road Runner cartoon Fast and Furry-ous; a slow zoom out reveals that Danny is watching it on his TV set. Within the space of a few minutes, the movie goes from a fictional reality to a real fiction to a fictional fiction to a cartoon and then back to the fictional reality again, all in the service of gags and “visual melodies.” The fog around Elsinore turns into a puff of cartoon smoke. As fiction, it’s messy and nonsensical. As filmmaking, it’s pure. Last Action Hero (Film) - TV Tropes Last Action Hero You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share — Arnold Schwarzenegger 's rendition of Hamlet Last Action Hero is one of the few movies whose genre is accurately described as "Other".

A 1993-era Genre Savvy young action movie fan is sucked into the latest film of his favourite hero and proceeds to lampshade all manner of tropes. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an action movie hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (who gets to enter the real world and meet Arnold Schwarzenegger himself !). It was directed by John McTiernan , previously known for such films as Die Hard (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990) and Medicine Man (1992) and written by Shane Black , most notable for penning Lethal Weapon , and would later go on to write and direct Kiss Kiss Bang Bang . This was Schwarzenegger's first film after Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Made to appeal to a bigger family audience than most of his films had been up to that point, the wave of hype promised that it would be, as the trailers put it, "The big ticket for '93!" But it was released the weekend after Jurassic Park , which turned out to be a far bigger hit than Columbia Pictures expected, opened.

Thus Last Action Hero failed to live up to the hype at the box office, and while it was eventually profitable the film was widely regarded as a bomb. But it's become something of a Cult Classic for its freewheeling send-ups of action movie tropes. This movie provides examples (primarily parodies) of the following tropes: A God Am I : Benedict after discovering the magic ticket. Benedict: If God were a villain...he'd be me. Accidental Kiss : Whitney kisses Danny when she believes he's the freshman she's been assigned to kiss when he comes to her door. Danny is more than pleased. The guys in the red pick-up truck have a crate of Acme Dynamite. There are ACMEï¿½ products all over the place, including in the Real World. Action Duo Action Girl : Deconstructed. Slater tells Danny that he wishes his daughter, Whitney, was more normal. He later tells Danny that she has no friends or social life, and spends all her spare time with her guns. Also a possible subversion, given that Whitney hardly does anything, despite her actress receiving top billing alongside Schwarzenegger (in Jack Slater IV, that is).

It's possible that Danny stepping in meant he took over her role as Slater's sidekick. Actor Allusion : Frank Mc Rae plays essentially reprises his role from 48Hrs in all but name. Adam Westing : Taken to meta-levels. Arnold plays himself in the real world as a flighty celebrity led around by his wife. Adrenaline Makeover / Anachronism Stew : Played for laughs during the Arnold as Hamlet dream sequence. It starts off with Hamlet killing people with thrown skulls and swords before responding to the line "Stay thy hand, fair prince" with a "Who says I'm fair?" and slaughtering an entire castle full of guards with a submachine gun before blowing the castle up. Hamlet: To be, or not to be...not to be. *lights cigar as an explosion goes off behind him* All Fiction Is Real Somewhere : The premise is that all movies exist in parallel fictional universes. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Jack Slater IV premiere assumes this is the case with the Slater/Ripper fight in the balcony. When Slater runs out of the theater afterward, the throng of paparazzi assumes he is Schwarzenegger.

Tom Noonan's agent thinks The Ripper is Tom. It gets him killed. Averted later in the film, when a whole theater of frightened people runs away from the Grim Reaper. The fact that they actually saw him walk him out of the movie and into the theatre probably helped a good deal. And This Is For... : Jack smacks the shit out of Benedict with a bunch of "And this is for!" statements - except for his ex-wife's home, which he gives a little slap on the wrist for. Angrish : Slater's captain . In fact, you can probably count on one hand the times where it is possible to make out what he is saying. Anti-Hero : Parodied. Apathetic Citizens : In the film's real world New York, Benedict conducts an experiment: Benedict (shouting in the street): Hello! I have just shot a man and I did it on purpose! ( silence ) I said, I have just murdered a man, and I wish to confess! When a citizen tells him to shut up, Benedict's smug grin says it all. Aside Glance : The Grim Reaper before he comes out of The Seventh Seal.

Benedict has a couple: first during his "If God were a villain" monologue, and later on a positively wicked one when he realizes that the rules of the Slater films don't apply in the real world. Audience Surrogate : Danny is a literal one. Naturally, like everything else in the film, this is lampshaded. Another cop gets teamed up with the black and white digitalization of Humphrey Bogart . Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate : Played with: Jack falls into a tar pit, comes out completely covered in tar, and begins to wipe himself off. The camera cuts away briefly, and when it cuts back he's completely clean. Danny remarks, "You know, tar actually sticks to some people." But for Me, It Was Tuesday : Played with. Danny warns Slater not to trust Practice, because he's played by F. Murray Abraham , who killed Mozart . When Slater later repeats the accusation, misremembering it as "you killed Moe Zart," Practice is confused, but concedes it's possible: "I kill a lot of people. I can't remember half of them." Call Back : Jack gets to listen to music by the real Mozart , and loves it. Jack: The guy Practice killed?

The Cameo : As Danny walks into the LAPD police station for the first time, Catherine Trammell and the T-1000 can be seen walking out. The officer that shouts "Hey Slater! It's your ex-wife on two!" when Slater and Danny show up at the police station is played by Mike Muscat, who had previously played Moshier in Terminator 2: Judgment Day , as the Cyberdyne Systems security guard who calls the police to say, "I think it's that guy from the mall. Him and the woman" when Miles Dyson shows up with the Terminator and Sarah Connor in tow. Muscat was also Edward Furlong 's (John Connor) acting coach. The Jack Slater IV premiere apparently desires to showcase as many celebrity cameos as possible, including a few who have connections to Schwarzenegger: Little Richard, Entertainment Tonight host Leeza Gibbons, James Belushi (who starred with Schwarzenegger in Red Heat ), Damon Wayans, Chevy Chase, Timothy Dalton (the James Bond actor at that time) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (who worked with John McTiernan on Predator as the original Predator before dropping out), who delivers a Bilingual Bonus joke.

Joan Plowright, Laurence Olivier 's wife, is the teacher who introduces his version of Hamlet and says the kids might recognize him as Zeus from Clash of the Titans and some Polaroid camera commercials. In a blink or you'll miss it cameo, Tina Turner plays the Mayor at the climax of Jack Slater III. Sir Ian McKellen plays Death from The Seventh Seal . Danny DeVito as the voice of Whiskers. Jack: "Rubber baby buggy bumpers!" Didn't know I would say that, did you? Jack also has his own: "Big mistake." His daughter seems to have inherited it. Celebrity Paradox : Played straight when Danny finds a poster for Terminator 2: Judgment Day with Sylvester Stallone as the T-800, ostensibly to prevent people from asking why Slater looks like the humanoid robot. Danny's teacher does a presentation on Lawrence Olivier's version of Hamlet, without acknowledging the fact that she's played by Olivier's real-life wife. Averted when Jack Slater runs into Arnold Schwarzenegger after Reality Ensues . Cerebus Retcon : Jack reveals later in the film that most of his wisecracking exterior is all a ploy.

His supposed clingy and talkative ex-wife is really a convenience store clerk that he pays to call him, just so that his coworkers think that she still cares about him. He is still suffering Heroic B.S.O.D. from his son dying, and he fears that his daughter is so obsessed with being an Action Girl that she's going to die alone. Chandler's Law : Averted. Once Big Bad Benedict ditches Slater in the real world, he decides against giving him a new lead in the form of a hitman who'll almost definitely fail. He just executes his plan while Slater lampshades this, waiting for said killer to show up. Chekhov's Gun : The key thrown to Danny by the burglar to free himself from the handcuffs during the robbery attempt. He keeps it and, after Practice handcuffs him in the film-within-a-film, uses it again. When Nick tears the magic movie ticket in half while admitting Danny in to see the new Slater film. During the ending, the Grim Reaper tells Danny to find "the other half of that ticket". In-universe, a wad of counterfeit bills that Jack keeps in his house, notable for burning an odd color.

When Danny tries to convince Benedict to take the money and leave, he calls his bluff and orders the money burned... which serves as a signal to warn Jack that something's wrong. Chekhov's Gunman : Whiskers shows up to save Slater and Danny when Practice handcuffs them again and attempts to kill them. Every Car Is a Pinto : Parodied, also by taking it to the extreme. Later, Deconstructed and averted as they go to the real world. A particularly egregious example is when a henchman gets shot, fly through the air, and through the windshield of an ice cream truck... which inexplicably explodes with no obvious source of fuel. Everyone Is Armed : The rooftop funeral scene. Fortunately for Jack, everyone there is also a graduate from the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy . Evil Brit : Benedict, played by a deliciously hammy Charles Dance. Explosion Propulsion : Slater is propelled into the air while attempting to outrun a Time Bomb . Extended Disarming : During the opening scene, Jack is told to disarm. The Ripper (having apparently heard of some of Jack's exploits), isn't satisfied with him just dropping the pistol in his hand, and insists on seeing the rest of it.

Jack takes quite some time removing his knife, and then the rest of his pistols, and the Ripper is only duly impressed after double-checking whether that really was all of it. Slater tells him it is....unless a "grenade" with a blade that pops out of it counts. Eyepatch of Power / Glass Eye : Benedict sports various brightly coloured (and occasionally explosive) glass eyes to good dramatic effect . The fact that his eye collection appears to be made of a stack of spoons hints to Eye Scream in his past. Fantastic Racism : Jack accuses Danny of this after he points out that Whiskers the cat shouldn't be a police detective because he's a cartoon. Slater: He's supposed to be back! He was only suspended for a month! So what's your point? 555 : Lampshaded: " That's why we have area codes! " Actually, more like Comically Missing the Point , even most people who are math challenged know that there would not be enough numbers to go around if every three-digit Central Office code was 555. Fourth-Wall Observer : When Jack finally gets home, he still remembers that he's a film character.

He deliberately lampshades the nearest comedy trope character (his boss), then winks at the audience. Fridge Logic invoked: A rare in-universe Invoked Trope . Death calmly comments that Danny is an idiot because he hadn't bothered to look for the other half of the magic ticket. Danny gives himself a mental Face Palm . Funny Background Event : After Slater has momentarily escaped the villains by ramping his convertible through the air and landing safely, while he and Danny have a leisurely chat about the fruits of life, we watch as the black mminivan that was chasing them attempts to copy Slater's stunt, fails, and crashes in a massive fireball behind them. Neither notices. Also, when Jack and Danny are driving to the funeral they are conversing in his car. In the background you see cars crashing the entire time, most likely because of Jack's driving. Gatling Good : The black van with the sawed-off minigun in the door. And two of these are mounted on the helicopter at the funeral. And naturally, none of them sounds like it's shooting at a realistic firing rate. Genius Bruiser : Jack Slater may be a muscle bound, gun toting movie cop, but he's also extremely intelligent.

Even in the real world, he knows the makes and models of cars by year and knows that one car has an air bag and the other doesn't. He also is charming and witty when he's no longer bound by the conventions of an action film. Genre Savvy : First Danny, then Benedict and later Jack Slater. The Ripper himself notes that the rooftop scene is exactly like Jack Slater III, so he decides to skip the talking and just toss the kid (Danny in this case) right away rather than wait. Glass Eye : Benedict has a collection of them, which he switches between on a whim: one of them even doubles as an example of Anatomy Arsenal , when a clueless cop picks up one that's he's left behind and twists it so that he can read the text on it , causing it to blow up, as described above. Good Night, Sweet Prince : Parodied. If Arnie plays Hamlet, no one's going to tell this sweet prince goodnight! Gosh Dang It to Heck! : Lampshaded , of course.

Jack refuses to say any serious swear words; Danny points out that he can't because "this movie's only PG-13." The Grim Reaper : Plucked by the magic ticket from The Seventh Seal . And played by Sir Ian McKellen, no less! Instead of being another fictional character, he's indicated to be the real Grim Reaper. He even knows when Danny will die. Groin Attack : "You want to be a farmer? Here's a couple of acres!" During the attack at the home, Jack's daughter, Whitney is slapped by one of the thugs in her bedroom and when this happens, she says "big mistake" and proceeds to use her right foot to kick him in the groin while lifting him over her via the groin kick at the same time so that she can eventually jump and stomp on him. Guns Akimbo : Jack does the Matrix version with dual SMGs. Hand Cannon : Jack Slater's Desert Eagle and Benedict's Dan Wesson revolver. "Hell, Yes!" Moment : Danny has one of these when Whitney escapes her captors and pulls a gun on the guys holding him. Everyone notices. Hero Insurance : Lampshaded, of course in the scene where Slater is being chewed out by his hammy boss.

Danny tells Slater, "He's only mad because you destroyed more of the city than usual..." Hidden Depths : Jack Slater. He's leading a pitiful life that even his screenwriters didn't expect. Danny: Look on the good side. You have a great daughter. And your ex-wife wouldn't call if she didn't want you back. Jack: Danny, do you think I would have married someone so stupid who can't tell my real voice from a taped one? I pay a cashier to call me at work, so the guys think I have a life. My ex-wife is happily remarried. She never calls. And Whitney—why can't she be a normal teenager? On prom night she stays home to field strip an AK-47! She's going to die a young maid, I know it. I'm going to buy it soon, too. Danny: No way. You can't die until the grosses go down. The movie itself surprisingly has it's share of hidden depths. For instance Danny's idealism towards Slater is due to the fact that he didn't have a father around as it's just his mother thats raising him and Jack is the closest that Danny has as a father figure.

Jack is also apparently very charming when not having to exercise action movie tropes 24/7 - and pleased to realize it, too. High Voltage Death : Slater dispatches the Ripper using electricity; While on a rainy rooftop The Ripper throws an axe at him, Jack takes the axe and uses it to chop open a nearby powerbox. He climbs onto the side of the building and pushes the cut power lines into the puddles Ripper is standing in, electrocuting Ripper to death. Hollywood Homely : In-universe. Danny explicitly points out how there are no "unattractive people" in Jack's world. Jack sees nothing unusual about it. Averted when Benedict gets to our world, on the other hand: he gets to see some of the real thing, particularly a prostitute who rather half-heartedly tries to solicit him. Hurricane of Euphemisms : Lt. Dekker has dozens of them for his anus. I Am Not Leonard Nimoy : In-universe: The opening credits of Jack Slater IV give an And Introducing credit to Meredith Caprice, the fictional actress who plays Whitney. When he actually meets her, Danny keeps accidentally calling her Meredith.

Actor Allusion : This was Bridgette Wilson-Sampras' first film role. Idiot Ball : "You're a very brave young man. Unfortunately, you're not very bright. If I were you... I might be looking for the other half of the ticket." If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... : Invoked when Danny growls at Benedict when he has Whitney in his clutches, "If you harm one hair on her—-" Benedict interrupts, "Stop!", deliberately plucks a hair out of her head, then snaps it in front of Danny, daring him to finish his threat. Karma Houdini : The burglar since this is real life and not a movie; kind of a What Happened to the Mouse? example because he's about as petty as a crook can get (didn't even find much to steal) and far worse things were about to happen . Also, two petty thugs Benedict happened to see beating and possibly killing a man for his shoes, which was part of his education in how unresponsive police in some parts of our world are to crime. Lampshade Hanging : More lampshades than a Shriner Convention. Large Ham : The chief of police and Benedict.

The chief apparently can only talk in incoherent angrish. Licensed Pinball Table : Released by Data East in 1993. Click here. Lighter and Softer : In comparison to most of Schwarzenegger's other movies. Only slightly. It manage to have it's share of grim moments due to several Would Hurt a Child moments with Slater's kid being killed and Danny getting close to getting killed himself. There is also some disturbing moments such as Danny's encounter with a robber. Disturbingly, Slater's movie world comes over like that in comparison to Danny's real world, to the point Benedict is initially shocked at the sight of underage women prostituting themselves and people being murdered for their shoes. Limited Wardrobe : While not pointed out in dialogue, the brief look in Slater's closet during the once-a-movie "shoot the assassin hiding in the closet" sequence has a line of identical outfits ( complete with an entire shelf of Desert Eagle pistols . Made of Iron : Slater, at least in the movies. When he arrives in the real world, he's genuinely shocked that punching out a car window with his bare hand hurts.

A case of Reality Is Unrealistic subverts this, unique to Schwarzenegger — he famously punched out a real car window by mistake in True Lies , and didn't notice. Also, Danny, to an extent, as he manages to brush off falling off a rooftop and crashing through a house with little to no injuries. Meaningful Name : If you're going to employ a Dragon , don't pick a guy named Benedict! There's also the Pandora Theater. And stay away from gangsters named "The Fart". Oddly, while the Pandora is a real theater in Los Angeles - and the film was shot in it - there is no Pandora Theater in New York. Medium Awareness : Danny, justified as he is literally trapped in a movie. Medium Blending : Danny sees an animated cat interacting with regular people once he's within the film, as well as a digitized black-and-white image of Humphrey Bogart . Metal Head : Slater's music of choice is heavy metal. Late in the film, Danny actually reacts with dismay when he witnesses Slater enjoying classical music (which does not exist in Slater's world).

Mood Whiplash : Danny's encounter with the burglar, which leaves a Chekhov's Gun (the key to the handcuffs) and gives Danny and Jack an explanation for the latter's presence to his mom. Also when Danny and Slater enter the real world, Slater's acts of Genre Blindness are initially played off for laughs. The duo chase Benedict through New York in stolen cars, ending up in a back-alley where they are challenged to a game of chicken. The scene is tense, Danny warns Slater he could die, but Slater drops off Danny and speeds off. However neither vehicle manages to build much speed (unlike in the movie world). Compared to all the things Slater has survived up to this point, as well as what most action heroes survive, most viewers wont be expecting much of a crash, even if it is the real world. Cue the actual crash at around 40 k/Ph which causes the cars rears to lift off the ground. It does not help that Slater's taillights go out and one of the car horns goes off. Most Wonderful Sound : Jack's reaction to hearing Mozart, or classical music in general, for the first time.

At Leo The Fart's funeral, when Jack steals the corpse, every single guest, even the priest, the nuns and several little old ladies pull out military grade automatic weapons. Then again, it was a Mafia funeral . The goons in the black van shoot at Slater with a Gatling gun. How about the helicopter that shoots through an entire building? Motor Mouth : Turned Up to Eleven with Da Chief . At one point, he starts speaking so fast and so angrily that smoke literally starts coming out of his ears. Mr. Exposition : Jack's favorite second cousin, Frank, who conveniently expires after delivering a Red Herring . Non-Fatal Explosions Not Even Bothering with the Accent : Lampshaded and mocked. Danny points out that Slater's thick Austrian accent is weird for a native Angeleno. Slater's response? " Egghcent? Vaht egghcent? " Noticing The Fourth Wall : Half the plot of the movie revolves around this, with fictional police officer Jack Slater not only having to face the repercussions of being transported to the real world, where the physics of his overblown action film world do not apply, but eventually even bumping into the actor who plays him. Hilarity Ensues .

Naturally, Slater does not take any of it well. Once per Episode : Jack appears to randomly shoot into his closet when he comes home, but then a dead assassin falls out. Apparently there's always one in there. He then says it costs him a fortune in closet doors. Only a Flesh Wound : Played with and lampshaded: Slater suffers a gunshot wound from Benedict in the real world, causing a race against time to get him back into the movie world, where the doctor "wouldn't even call it a flesh wound." Only Known by Their Nickname : Lampshaded - since the screenwriter for Jack Slater IV never bothered to give the nerdy freshman "Skeezie" an actual name, he doesn't have one. "Skeezie" is the full name he gives on a police report. Skeezie: (to policeman) Skeezie. S-K-E... He doesn't even know how to finish spelling it. "I-E... no, 'Y'." Parental Bonus : Sharon Stone has a brief cameo as the same character she played in Basic Instinct . Plot Armor : Lampshaded.

When Slater is shot in the real world, part of the post-climax is getting him back into the movie world, making this a rare case where the trope is actually invoked! Plucky Comic Relief : The kid realizes he is this during a game of "Chicken" with a car, while riding a bike. Danny: I'm the comedy sidekick... Oh, shit, I'm the comedy sidekick! This isn't going to work! Poirot Speak : Vivaldi has a thick Italian accent and frequently butchers idioms , much to Benedict's annoyance. Post-Kiss Catatonia : A mild version—Danny becomes quite...introverted after Whitney mistakenly kisses him, complete with stumbling walk and goofy smile, "reminding" himself that it all goes downhill from there.... Power Perversion Potential : In-universe, upon learning that the ticket actually works, Nick considers the possibility of visiting Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow . Pun : Lampshaded. The movie delivers them by the truckload. Precision F-Strike : Subverted. Danny tries to get Slater to say a certain word - and he can't... because it's a PG-13 movie . Later Double Subverted when Danny gets an " Oh shit!

" line. Then triple-subverted with Da Chief because in fact you can drop one F-bomb in a PG-13 movie. Pre-Mortem One-Liner : "No sequel for you." Public Domain Soundtrack : The soundtrack has plenty of bits from real classical music. Most notably Mozart . Stealth Pun : There's a ton of metal versions of Mozart in the soundtrack. Rage Against the Author : Slater's got some pretty understandable anger against the writers who killed off his son in the third movie. He also rips into Schwarzenegger when he finally meets him. Reality Ensues : The entire second half of the film revolves around both Slater and Benedict realizing that the rules of their world don't coincide with that of the real world. Slater discovers that his gunfire won't automatically blow up a vehicle, that his hand hurts when he punches a window out, and that car crashes are much more dangerous than he thinks. Meanwhile, Benedict discovers that he can kill with impunity and no one notices. This also applies to Jack's world in a rather unusual way. While all the action movie tropes are firmly set in place, reality still ensues as well as possible within the confines of the said tropes. Jack's cool action hero behaviour?

Only a facade to distract others from his PTSS and loneliness. His sexy Action Girl daughter? Yes, she is an Action Girl and enjoys it, but she misses out on basically everything else in life, so it will later come back to her with revenge. They are both shown that the women in the real world aren't anything like the movie in their world. In Slater's case he's more at ease in just having a conversation with Danny's mom, who, though not unattractive (being played by Mercedes Ruehl), but hardly the supermodels he normally meets, while Benedict was caught off guard by the appearance of a young prostitute. "The Reason You Suck" Speech : Danny gives one to Death as he approaches Slater. Seems like he hasn't gotten over his father dying. Recursive Reality : There are movies in Jack Slater's universe, making them movies within a movie ... within a movie. Shout-Out : A visual gag referencing ET . The two beat cops at the beginning are very reminiscent of Riggs & Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon , complete with saxophone riff and "three days 'till retirement". Jack's slo motion fall from a building is a direct visual reference to Hans Gruber's plummet in Die Hard .

Snarky Inanimate Object : The magic ticket that transports Danny into the movie is said as having a mind of its own. When Danny attempts to get it to take him back to the real world, it reverts to being inactive. Only after it falls into the hands of the film's villain does it decide to stay on all the time. Of course, it decides to momentarily turn off again at the exact moment Benedict needs it to escape being killed by Jack. Soft Glass : Lampshaded. While in the real world, Jack notes that his hand really hurts after punching through a car window. Take That : Part of the playful feud Arnold has with Sylvester Stallone is played out here; when Danny goes to the video store to show Jack the guy who played him in another movie, he finds an advertisement for Terminator 2: Judgment Day starring Stallone. Jack: The man is an artist. It's his best performance ever! He's either saying he'd have played it better, or that it was his best performance because it didn't happen. You could infer he's praising himself, since in the real world, Arnold played the Terminator; and it was his immediately preceding picture, so up to that point, for Arnold, it was HIS best performance.

The La Brea Tar Pits was a Take That to another 1993 film, Jurassic Park . The Take That was made during production of both films; Last Action Hero was assuming it would be a blockbuster hit as well, so it ended up as being the equivalent of the Star Wars "billboard" being blasted by Billy in Laserblast . The Hamlet parody was also a Take That to Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990), directed by Franco Zeffirelli . This Is Reality : And Benedict likes it. His Just Between You and Me speech is terrifying: Benedict: Gentlemen. Since you are about to die anyway, I may as well tell you the entire plot ! Think of villains, Jack. You want Dracula ? Dra-cool-la? Hang on, (takes out the ticket ) I'll fetch him. Dracula? Huh. I can get King Kong ! We'll have a nightmare with Freddy Krueger , have a surprise party for Adolf Hitler ; Hannibal Lecter can do the catering , and then we'll have a christening for Rosemary's Baby ! All I have to do is snap my fingers and they'll be here.

They're lining up to get here, and do you know why, Jack? Should I tell you why? Hmm? Because here, in this world, the bad guys can win! Also just about weaponized by Jack at one point, showing he was getting almost as savvy as Benedict, in the chicken scene listed under Mood Whiplash . He realizes full well the dangers of a head-on collision in the real world, but also realizes the goon he's staring down doesn't. He explicitly points out (after the fact) the model vehicle he had was better designed for a head-on collision and he was wearing a seatbelt and had an airbag, while the bad guy wasn't and didn't. He just underestimated HOW MUCH it was going to hurt. Time Bomb : Played with. Slater realizes a bomb is about to go off when a series of cards show decreasing numbers counting down . Title Drop : Averted. The teacher refers to Hamlet as one of the first action heroes. Turn in Your Badge : Complete with smoke coming out the ears. Danny: He only took your badge because you destroyed more of the city than usual. Also during the opening of the film, Slater willingly tosses his badge to his Captain before taking on The Ripper.

The Unpronounceable : Believe it or not, Arnold Schwarzenegger; Jack can't even pronounce the name of the actor who plays him, and ends up calling him " Arnold Braunschweiger " most of the time. Unusually Uninteresting Sight : Even in a loopy action film, it's bizarre to see 1) a talking animated cat, 2) Catherine Trammell and the T-1000 strolling around, 3) a black-and-white Humphrey Bogart, 4) steam literally coming out of a man's head when angry and 5) every woman with model looks. But being a live-action cartoon world, no one (but Danny) seems to even think it's slightly out of place. Visual Pun : Audio pun, anyway. All of the incidental music is revamped classical music, such as "Moonlight Sonata". Wait Here : Lampshaded when Jack tells Danny to stay in the car while he goes off to locate a bomb: Jack: Stay in the car. Danny: No, I am coming with you. Jack: (annoyed) Let us say this is a movie; if someone says "stay in the car" and the guy does not, what happens?

Danny: Wait a minute! What if staying in the car is what gets me killed? Jack: (aggravated) ...There's a gun in the glove compartment! What Happened to the Mouse? : The Grim Reaper advises Danny to use the other half of the ticket to bring Jack Slater back to his movie, and then walks out. Does the Reaper keep the first half of the ticket and use it to return to The Seventh Seal from which he was accidentally taken from? The movie doesn't tell us. The ticket fell on the ground outside the arthouse theatre shortly before a stampede and was presumably lost. Death never had it, it just affected his theatre long enough to get him out. When Dimensions Collide : Although Jack Slater loses his action-hero resistance to pain when he visits the real world, Death is not so restricted, apparently carrying the laws of his home reality with him. Perhaps because in his home universe Jack is only an exceptionally athletic man, while Death is a powerful supernatural being by the standards of his universe. Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : Lampshaded and inverted when John Practice turns against Jack; Danny's explanation of this trope is long enough for the bad guys to get the drop on him as well.

("You ain't no genius yourself, kid.") Danny: (to Jack) I don't see you coming up with ideas. Then double-inverted, as the bad guy does the exact same thing, except he actually gets shot, because the one who shot him is the previously-mentioned animated cat detective who is bound only to Toon Physics and Rule of Funny . Jack: Whiskers! What kept you? Wicked Cultured : Benedict, who is way more worldly than any other character, especially Vivaldi. Would Hurt a Child : Ripper takes a bunch of them hostage, kills Jack's son then attempts to recreate the murder with Danny, and Benedict seriously threatens and brutalizes Danny several times throughout the movie. Wounded Gazelle Gambit : Benedict orders a thug to take Whitney aside and slap her around; she turns the tables on him easily, but continues screaming as if she's the one being attacked, letting her get the drop on Benedict. Later on in the real world, Benedict smacks Danny into a nearby wall; Danny starts crying over a broken arm the treatment gave him, and Benedict turns his attention back to Slater, letting Danny then resume rushing him.

Wrong Genre Savvy : Danny realizes almost too late that he's just Plucky Comic Relief to Jack, so the bad guy car won't swerve out of the way of the kid playing chicken with it on a bicycle . Benedict actually. He's under the impression he can control the ticket, and tries to use it to warp out when he's about to lose. Unfortunately for him, the ticket only does things when it wants to. You Bastard : Slater doesn't particularly like being sucked into a new highly dangerous adventure each time the audience in the real world demands it. When he meets Schwarzenegger at the movie premiere, the character accuses his actor of being responsible for his suffering. You Have Outlived Your Usefulness : Benedict to Vivaldi after he learns of the magic ticket's power. :: Indexes :: Audience Reviews for Last Action Hero ½ I thought that this film could've been handled a little better than it could've with Schwarzenneggers standards, but its very entertaining.

The main character does a good job as being a kid with a disfunctional life, a mom who's never hardly around, no dad and the closest father figure being a theater custodian played by Robert Prosky, and has been skipping school, and the idea of being sucked into a film, I thought was a very interesting concept, I know the concept has been done before, like with Bugs Bunny going into Elmer Fudd's dreams, or Timmy Turner getting into different books interacting with the characters (I Just realized this is in cartoons a lot,) but a kid getting sucked into an action movie is pretty interesting. And as a Schwarzennegger action comedy, it was done very well, also I like the film how it makes fun of all the different action movie cliches at the time, the puns, the explosions, the car chases, the slow-mo, the celebrity cameos, its just crazy, and the fact that a magical ticket can give you the power to travel into different films and out into the real world, its pretty cool, and when the villain gets a hold of the ticket, it becomes very interesting.

Overall out of all the 90s action Schwarzennegger movies, its not the best, but as a comedy and an action movie its very well constructed and put together. Michael Edwards Super Reviewer A somewhat cheesy kids movie, but it's very funny. I really liked Schwarzenegger in this movie, he's very cool. I enjoyed this movie, it's good. Aj V Super Reviewer I really don't understand why this movie gets so much flack, it's really a great idea and fun critique of Hollywood movies. Maybe it was too ahead of its time and maybe it still is, but I enjoyed it a lot. Arnold Schwarzenegger was extremely brave and humble to joke about himself and the movies he tends to be in, just a testament to someone who appreciates all they have. All the cameos and film references are some great touches and I love the cheesy over the top sequences and dialogue. I think the overall message is good; while Hollywood isn't an accurate representation of the world, it's still an important part of our culture and a way for us to see life as we wish it was.

Conner Rainwater Liam Neeson Is The Last Action Hero Liam Neeson Is The Last Action Hero {{article.article.images.featured.caption}} Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Full Bio The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Loading ... Loading ... This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe This Friday sees the release of Liam Neeson's newest action-thriller Non-Stop. In the Universal Pictures (a division of ) release, 61-year old and 6'4" actor stars as an air marshal who must stop a killer aboard a crowded commercial airline. I've avoided most of the marketing, but I can presume when I see it tonight that it will involve Neeson barking at people and kicking a certain amount of righteous butt. The $50 million production is predicted to open with around $25 million for the weekend. What's notable is that the vast majority of its audiences will be showing up for the express purpose of watching Neeson beat people up and/or shoot at them. Non-Stop isn't just an action film, it's a Liam Neeson action film.

In an era when the stand-alone action hero movie star is all-but-extinct, Neeson is perhaps the last man standing. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone both bombed hard last year in the surprisingly good The Last Stand (Lionsgate, a division of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.) and the mediocre Bullet to the Head (Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner) respectively, while their so-so team-up film Escape Plan (Lionsgate) avoided embarrassment thanks to a strong overseas performance ($25 million here, $137 million worldwide on a $55 million budget). Jason Statham made one of his worst films (Parker for Film District) and one of his best films (the Stallone-penned Homefront for Open Road Films) and neither of them topped $21 million domestic. Bruce Willis at least had a decent opening for A Good Day To Die Hard ($25 million), but it was both the franchise's lowest-grosser in the states ($65 million) and one of the worst movies ever made. But Liam Neeson closed out 2012 with a $49 million debut and $375 million worldwide gross for Taken 2.

What started as perhaps a novelty in 2009, with "very serious actor" Liam Neeson headlining an exploitation picture, has become something of a career comeback. Taken was released over Super Bowl weekend in 2009 with minimal expectations. But thanks to a terrific teaser that gave away almost nothing save for the core premise (it was based around the film's most iconic sequence) a primal concept (former US spy-turned overprotective dad rescues his teenage daughter from sex trafficking foreigners), and the curiosity factor of seeing Oskar Schindler as a one-man killing machine, the picture opened with $24 million. It kept on kicking for weeks, pulling the kind of weekend-to-weekend drops usually associated with James Cameron films. It earned $145 million domestically, a stunning 6x weekend-to-final multiplier, for a $226 million worldwide cume on a $25 million budget.

After supporting roles in action pictures both successful (Clash Of The Titans with $493 million worldwide) and not successful enough to justify their $100 million+ budgets (The A- with $177 million worldwide off a $25 million debut), Neeson returned as an action lead in the genuinely Hitchockian (think B-grade Hitchcock) action thriller Unknown. The film had a harder to explain and far less primal premise (amnesia, assassins, the much younger January Jones playing his would-be love interest), but it still opened with $21 million and made its way to $130 million on a $30 million budget. He started out 2012 with another would-be action vehicle, Joe Carnahan's unexpectedly good The Grey. The film is an existential look at men coming to terms with their impending deaths, but it was successfully sold by Open Road Films as "Come see Liam Neeson punch wolves!" Cue a $19 million debut weekend and a $77 million worldwide gross for the $25 million drama.

2012 continued with supporting roles in two too-expensive would-be blockbusters, Wrath of the Titans ($305 million on a $150 million budget) and Battleship ($303 million on a $209 million budget). Both Wrath of the Titans and Battleship still pulled $25 million+ debuts although we can debate how much credit Neeson deserves for either. He finished off 2012 with Taken 2, which is of course the sequel to the film that turned him into an icon in the first place. Despite terrible reviews, a rehashed premise, and yet another case of a Luc Besson production being cut to ribbons for a PG-13, it debuted with $49.5 million in mid-October. To put that somewhat stunning number in perspective, it's one of the largest non-fantasy action debuts of all time, even when adjusted for inflation. In terms of fantasy-laden "one man army" action pictures not based on a comic book superhero, the Indiana Jones sequels had larger opening weekends when adjusted for inflation, as did The Matrix Reloaded and the middle Terminator sequels.

In terms of non-fantasy action-man adventures, Harrison Ford's Air Force One ($67 million in 2014 dollars), Mel Gibson's Ransom ($64 million when adjusted for inflation), and the last two Lethal Weapon films sold more tickets on opening weekend. If you're counting spy franchises, then toss in the three Daniel Craig 007s, the last two Pierce Brosnan Bond films, the middle two Bourne sequels, and Mission: Impossible 1, 2, and 3. Taken 2 still had a bigger debut than any Die Hard, any Rambo, or anything involving Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, or any other conventional action star you can think of. That $49.5 million debut for Taken 2 was most impressive because of how little it had to sell. Its success wasn't based on a known property outside of its status as a sequel to a popular and leggy action original from 2009. It didn't have any "added value elements" for the second go-around.

It didn't tweak the formula all that much, and it was arguably less violent and less visceral than its predecessor, since the makers were intentionally aiming for a PG-13 this time (the first Taken went out as an equivalent of an R overseas but was cut to a PG-13 in America by 20th Century ). Taken 2 was clearly an example of the classic "break out sequel" that I discuss from time-to-time (think The Bourne Supremacy). But it also had nothing going for it aside from the appeal of seeing Liam Neeson dish out righteous and paternalistic violence. It's little wonder he's earning $20 million for Taken 3. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are clearly on their last legs (to be fair, Schwarzenegger's Sabotage looks decent and could surprise), as is Bruce Willis. Harrison Ford has, give or take one more round as Indiana Jones, finally embraced the role of aging character actor while Kevin Costner failed at his action hero comeback this very weekend. Mel Gibson's leading man days are over.

Jason Statham never got that A-level "Under Siege" that might have catapulted him to the major leagues, so he is destined to churn out B-movie action vehicles of varying quality (I recommend Safe and The Bank Job) which are lucky to open with $8 million. Angelina Jolie has moved past her Tomb Raider/Wanted/Salt days and is focused on directing films like In The Land Of Blood and Honey and Unbroken. Dwayne Johnson has, like Bruce Willis, mostly settled into the comfort zone of ensemble action franchises. Channing Tatum scores best as a lover, not a fighter, while Gerald Butler may be an action star if he ever makes more than one every several years. The Scott Adkins of the world struggle to break out of the direct-to-DVD basement, while former or would-be action stars find comfort in ensemble franchises like G.I. Joe, Expendables, and Fast/Furious. The only actors who still qualify as action stars, to the extent that major studios still make conventional action pictures, are arguably Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, and Denzel Washington, although I would argue that Wahlberg and Cruise are old-school movie stars who occasionally do action vehicles.

The catch is that, arguably, much of their draw pertains to the idea that their star vehicles will attain a certain level of quality, especially for Cruise and Washington (Wahlberg is more of a mixed bag). No one expected Taken 2 to be any good, and it frankly wasn't. Few expected much from Unknown and The Grey succeeded almost in spite of its meditative quality (and despite its somewhat misleading marketing). Liam Neeson has gone from a respected dramatic actor to, diversions into films like Chloe aside, something of an action hero punch line while maintaining his gravitas as a respected actor. Neeson stands as the least likely and last vestige of a time seemingly passed. He's pulling in A-level opening weekends for unapologetically B-level action pictures. If audiences show up to Non-Stop this weekend, and I believe they will, it won't be because of the supporting cast (Julianne Moore, Corey Stoll, and Lupita Nyong'o all playing "not the killer" and/or " totally the killer") or because director Jaume Collet-Serra has a big following from his quirky and amusing B-movies like Orphan and the House of Wax remake.

It won't be because Non-Stop is based on a known property or because the trailers do more than a serviceable job of selling the plot. If Non-Stop is a hit, it will be because audiences want to see Liam Neeson in action-hero mode, plain and simple. That kind of "by myself" pull is what makes a genuine movie star. And that's what makes Liam Neeson our latest and perhaps least likely action hero. And in this current cinematic climate, he is perhaps our last action hero.

Question: Who starred as the Last Action Hero?
Answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger